Anthony Burokas has posted a lengthy review of Panasonic’s “Professional” AG-HSC1U, a compact camcorder that records AVCHD to SD media cards. The HSC1U is the “Pro” big brother of the consumer HDC-SD1, and comes at a $1000 premium. A few highlights:

*The included 4g SD card limits you to 40 minutes of HD video and 5.1 audio recording at best quality.
*Comparing footage vs Sony HDR-FX1 HDV, the AVCHD shows more compression artifacts.
*”Dismal” battery runtime, charger curiously uses swapped colors to indicate charge status. Green means stop?
*Stereo mic in, component, AV, and HDMI out. USB 2.0 to transfer footage.

Anthony concludes by stating “The camcorder is okay, but, aside from color space, the Pro model offers nothing more than a higher price tag- currently about $1000 more than the consumer HDC-SD1, which retails in the $800’s now. The current implementation of AVCHD on this camcorder is a far cry from anything else that tries to call itself professional, let alone actually is.” He also takes a look at the VW-PT2 SD Media Storage device (featuring a 40g hard drive). A very informative review.